The front façade.
The owners contacted architect Jim Rill to create an indoor-outdoor room that would foster that missing connection. “They wanted it to complement their traditional house, but with as much glass as possible,” Rill recounts.
BEFORE PHOTOS
Working with David Parker of ThinkMakeBuild, Rill conceived a plan to replace the existing 12-by-16-foot screened porch with a glass-enclosed space nearly double in size. The new structure’s cantilevered roof appears to float above glass walls, conveying an airy, modern sensibility—but the horizontal lines of the roof and deck ensure that it still relates visually to the existing house. An ipe deck with glass railings cantilevers above the ground, adding to the sense of lightness; it merges with the brick floor of the adjacent veranda.
The interiors are heated and cooled by a system beneath the floor, and Fleetwood triple-pane sliding doors open on three sides to bring the outdoors in. The floor and ceiling are clad in light-hued maple, unifying the space. When the sliding doors are open, says Rill, “the porch just spills out onto the deck—and then out to the landscape.”
Renovation Architecture: James F. Rill, AIA, Rill Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. Interior Design: Jodi Macklin, Jodi Macklin Interior Design, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Contractor: David Parker, ThinkMakeBuild, Annapolis, Maryland.